Modular Game Board System

ABSTRACT

A chance means for a modular game board system includes a spinner housing including a horizontally oriented upper wall and a spinner being rotatably coupled to the upper wall. The upper wall is transparent. The spinner housing removably receives a media insert having spinner indicia thereon so that the spinner indicia may be seen through the upper wall.

CONTINUATION

I hereby claim the benefit under Title 35, United States Code, Section120 of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/067,645 filed on Oct. 30,2013.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE Field of the Disclosure

The disclosure relates to modifiable game board systems and moreparticularly pertains to a new system for allowing a person to modifyall portions of a game for altering game play in an unlimited fashion.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above bygenerally comprising a game board housing. The game board housingincludes a transparent top wall that is configured to allow viewing of amedia insert removably positioned in the game board housing. Each ofplurality of pawn housings has a front wall, a rear wall and inintermediate wall that is attached to the front and rear walls. Thefront wall is transparent and each of the pawn housings has an openingtherein configured for slidably receiving a media insert. A plurality ofbases is provided and each of the pawn housings has one of the basesattached thereto. The media inserts may be removed and replaced to altergame play.

An embodiment of the disclosure further generally comprises a pluralityof game board tiles each having a transparent top wall. The game boardtiles are each configured to receive a separate media insert and arethen positionable adjacent to each other to form a game board surface. Aplurality of pawn housings is provided. Each of the pawn housings has afront wall, a rear wall and an intermediate wall attached to the frontand rear walls. The front wall is transparent and each of the pawnhousings has an opening therein configured for slidably receiving amedia insert. Each of the pawn housings has one of a plurality of basesattached thereto. The media inserts may be removed and replaced to altergame play.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more importantfeatures of the disclosure in order that the detailed descriptionthereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that thepresent contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There areadditional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafterand which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features ofnovelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out withparticularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of thisdisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than thoseset forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to thefollowing detailed description thereof. Such description makes referenceto the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top view of a modular game board system according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2A is a broken top view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the disclosuretaken along line 2B of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a top perspective view of a spinner housing of an embodimentof the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a top perspective view of game board housing of an embodimentof the disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a front perspective view of a pawn housing of an embodiment ofthe disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a top view of game board tiles an embodiment of thedisclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 through6 thereof, a new modifiable game board system embodying the principlesand concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designatedby the reference numeral 10 will be described.

As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 6, the modular game board system10 generally comprises a game board housing 12. The game board housing12 includes a transparent top wall 14 that is configured to allowviewing of a media insert 16 removably positioned in the game boardhousing 12. The game board housing 12 may comprise a single game boardhousing 12 or may comprise a plurality of game board tiles 18.Alternatively, a game board housing 12 may be provided along with aplurality of game board tiles 18 as shown in FIG. 1. This allows thegame board housing 12 to function as a container for holding allcomponents of the system 10 and/or to function as part of a game beingplayed.

If a plurality of game board tiles 18 is utilized, each of the gameboard tiles 18 will be configured to each receive separate media insert16. The game board tiles 18 are positionable adjacent to each other toform a game board surface 22, such as is shown in FIG. 6. Though notshown, the game board tiles 18 may include interlocking edges 20 toreleasably secure the game board tiles 18 together. The media insert 16,or inserts, are slid into a slot 24 positioned within the game boardtiles 18. As shown in FIG. 4, the game board housing 12 may also includea slot 24 positioned within the top wall 14 for receiving the mediainsert 16 or the media insert 16 may be positioned within the housing 12between the top 14 and bottom 24 walls so that the media insert 16 isviewable through the top wall 14. The positioning of the media insert 16ensures that that the media insert 16 is clearly visible through the topwall 14. Though shown as a shallow area within the top wall 14 forreceiving the media insert 16, it should be understood that this areamay have a greater height to function as an auxiliary housing positionedover a main body of the game board housing 12. If the game board housing12 is used as a single media insert receiving member, the game boardhousing 12 will have its top wall 14 likely having a length and widtheach greater than 12.0 inches. However, it should be understood that aminiature embodiment of the system 10 may be contemplated having asmaller size than indicated above. The game board housing 12 may storevarious game playing articles when not in use. The game board tiles 18,when each filled with a media insert 16, are positioned so that themedia inserts 16 form a discernable game board surface for playing agame.

The game board tiles 18 may each comprise the top wall 14, a bottom wall26 and a perimeter edge 28 with the slot 24 therein for receiving mediainsert 16. The game board tiles 18 may include a generally rigid plasticor glass material, or a thin, flexible plastic material. Alternatively,the game board tiles 18 may include a folder type construction of a pairof flexible panels between which a media insert 16 may be positioned.Yet another construction may include board tiles 18 comprised of hingedcases which may be snapped closed. In general, the important factor ofthe game board tiles 18, or game housing 12 should the game board tiles18 not be used, is that the top wall 14 is transparent to allow themedia insert 16 to be easily viewed and which also allows the mediainsert 16 to be removed and replaced as needed. It is furthercomprehended that the board tiles 18, while shown with a rectangularshape, may be provided in other geometric shapes such as triangles,pentagons, hexagons and the like.

A plurality of pawn housings 30 is provided. The pawn housings 30,generally, are to be used as game pieces for moving along the game boardsurface 22. Each of the pawn housings 30 has a front wall 32, a rearwall 34 and an intermediate wall 36 that is attached to the front 32 andrear 34 walls. The front wall 32 is transparent, though the entire pawnhousing 30 may be transparent. Each of the pawn housings 30 has anopening 38 therein configured for slidably receiving a media insert 16.The slots 24 and openings 38 may be positioned along any edge of thegame board tiles 18 or pawn housings 30. As with the game board tiles18, the pawn housings 30 may comprise rigid transparent materials,cases, or flexible sleeves and folders. While the media inserts 16 ofthe game board tiles 18, and or game board housing 12, comprise gameboard surface indicia, those inserted into the pawn housings 30 willinclude indicia representing game pieces that are moved along game pathson the game board tiles 18. The pawn housings 30 may have a rectangularshape as shown, though such is not necessary. Generally, each of thepawn housings 30 will have a smaller size than a size of game boardtiles 18. That is, a surface area of the front walls 32 will typicallybe smaller than surface area of the top walls 14 of the game tiles 18.More particularly, the front walls 32 of the pawn housings 30 will beless than 10.0 in², though larger pawn housings 30 may be contemplated.

A plurality of bases 40 may be provided and each of the pawn housings 30has one of the bases 40 attached thereto. The bases 40 verticallyorientate the front walls 32 when a bottom surface of the bases 40 isplaced on the game board housing 12 or game board tiles 18.Alternatively, the bases 40 may be positioned on the rear wall 34 suchthat the front wall 32 faces upwardly and is horizontally oriented.

A spinner housing 42 includes a horizontally oriented upper wall 44 anda spinner 46 is rotatably coupled to the upper wall 44. The upper wall44 is transparent and the spinner housing 42 has an aperture 50 thereinconfigured to removably receive a media insert 16 having spinner indiciathereon 48. The aperture 50 is spaced from an outer surface of the upperwall 42 so that the media insert 16 is positioned beneath the spinner 46which is positioned above the upper surface of the upper wall 44. Thespinner indicia 48 are defined as any configuration of numbers, words ormarkings which a player of a game using the system 10 requires forparticular movement configurations and/or other game mechanics and canbe configured to emulate other types of chance means such as dice. Thusthe spinner indicia 48 may include numbering such as 1 through 6 and upto 1 through 20, for instance. The spinner housing 42 allows the user ofthe system 10 to thereby change the spinner, which is being used as achance means, to fit the particular game requirements of the game beingused with the spinner 46. It should be understood that variouscomponents of the system 10, such as in particular the spinner housing42, may be provided individually to modify existing or contemplatedgames.

In use, the media inserts 16 may be removed and replaced to alter gameplay. For example, a game developer would develop a game using differentmedia inserts 16 that can be inserted into the pawn housings 30, gameboard tiles 18 and spinner housing 42. The user of the system 10 wouldthen use the media inserts 16 to set up the game board tiles 18 asneeded to form a game board surface 22 on which to move the pawnhousings 30. The spinner 46 would also be used to determine movement ofthe pawns housings 30 or other game pieces supplied by the gamedeveloper. It should be understood that the developer may includeadditional game elements such as playing cards, playing pieces,additional chance means and the like. However, the system 10 providesthe ability of a game developer to easily and cost effectively develop anew game as the cost of making game boards, pawns and chance means canbe prohibitively expensive, particularly when done in small batches, asopposed to simply creating paper or laminated media inserts. For gameplayers, the system 10 allows for interchangeability to keep the overallcost of multiple games down as well as providing game players with theability to further modify games as they see fit.

With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized thatthe optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodimentenabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials,shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, aredeemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and allequivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings anddescribed in the specification are intended to be encompassed by anembodiment of the disclosure.

Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of theprinciples of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications andchanges will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is notdesired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operationshown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications andequivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of thedisclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used inits non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word areincluded, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. Areference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not excludethe possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless thecontext clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.

I claim:
 1. A chance means for a modular gaming system configured tofacilitate modification of an appearance of portions of a game, saidchance means including: a spinner housing including a horizontallyoriented upper wall and a spinner being rotatably coupled to said upperwall, said upper wall being transparent, wherein said spinner housing isconfigured to removably receive a media insert having spinner indiciathereon.
 2. The chance means according to claim 1, wherein said spinnerhousing includes said upper wall having an aperture therein, saidaperture being elongated and configured to removably receive the mediainsert.
 3. A chance means for a modular gaming system configured tofacilitate modification of an appearance of portions of a game, saidchance means including: a spinner housing including a horizontallyoriented upper wall and a spinner being rotatably coupled to said upperwall, said upper wall being transparent; a media insert having spinnerindicia thereon, said media insert being removably positioned in saidspinner housing.
 4. The chance means according to claim 3, wherein saidmedia indicia includes a plurality of numerals.
 5. The chance meansaccording to claim 3, wherein said media indicia includes a plurality ofwords configured to be associated with a game.
 6. The chance meansaccording to claim 3, wherein said media indicia includes a plurality ofmarkings configured to be associated with a game.